Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants how to turn algae into fertilizer?

This year the FA has been a little worse than last year. I put about 20 tilapia in just as an experiment to see if they survive, how big they get, whether they will be seen eating the FA and how many young they will produce in a typical Michigan summer. I haven't seen them since. Hopefully they are alive and well, making babies and will start doing their part to eat the FA soon.

So far I have an overgrowth of milfoil that I plan to treat soon, and in the last few weeks the FA have definitely become big floating mats covering about the first 10 feet of shallows all the way around.

Last year I would say 10% coverage, this year maybe 15% or more. We had wind and rain in June and it was easier to rake as it was blowing all to one side. Tonight I finished raking again, big heavy mats of algae, some milfoil mixed in all laying on the shore.

I use a long handled landscaping rake with a 48" head. The teeth tend to hold on to the mats too well and sometimes it is hard to get it to slide off the rake but it works fairly well. I did snag a large turtle (not a snapper) that must have been under the mats of algae taking a nap... I also found one dead golden shiner. He or she was a beautiful specimen and clearly I can see the shiners have been growing very well since I put them in. I never glimpse the adults, they must stay deep or under the mats of grass. Of the hundreds that we put in, 2 or 3 died in the first week after transport and stocking stress, and only 2 more have shown up dead since, they tend to look like normal adults, perhaps it was just their time.

IN a day or two the algae mats will be a lot lighter and get dry as tinder. However they tend to hold together very tightly. I'd like to chop them finer and use them as fertilizer in my garden. I tried to drive over them with my walk behind mower with bagger but it tends to just chop into slightly smaller chunks and the chunks tend to fly out from the sides of the deck rather than suck into the bag.

Questions:
1. Is it my imagination or is there a reason why there is more FA in the shaded portion of the pond than the nonshaded? Or maybe it dies more in the shade and I'm seeing the dead mats of algae floating to the top more readily there?

2. Any ideas on how to take the matted algae and effectively break it into tiny pieces to make it easy to incorporate into the soil in the garden?

3. Anyone have experience with adding the dry algae as fertilizer, will it bring unwanted weed seeds to the garden or should only be a net positive addition to the garden environment?

I can't answer you other questions but don't think it's it's any big deal as a fertilizer as it's mostly water and what remains does not easily decompose with the characteristics of cardboard. I could be wrong though. Don't see how it would bring weed seeds to a garden if they didn't come with the algae.

Should work fine:

http://ippseastern.org/research-grants/ipps-grant-for-2012-algal-mulch-and-composted-algae

I've used bank dried primrose and algae mats in the compost piles for years and never had any issues. What I haven't done is used any that I've killed by herbicides or algaecides. I usually put that in the burn pile.

How do you break up the big long twisted mats of algae? Any way to cut them smaller, or just lots of rototilling in the soil? I'm thinking I'm going to wind these long mats around the tiller tines and spend hours pulling it all out.

Once it's dry, I use a mulching mower to break it up, and speed up the composting process.

I've learned the hard way to never put any terrestrial plant waste straight into the garden, so I do the same with aquatic plant waste.

I decided with the help of the great people on this board to break down and use some chemicals. I wanted to target the milfoil so needed to apply some Sonar into the middle of the pond. My brother promised he'd bring over a boat or kayak sometime but I couldn't wait for him. I thought about using an innertube to get to the middle of the pond where I could administer into the aerator, but then had a better idea.

I don't know if you all know how great these big very dense foam (or urethane?) mats are for kids to play on. They come between 2 3, or 4" thick, and common sizes are 4x4, 4x6, and larger. They also make larger ones that are 12-14' feet long and are used as a platform to stand on out in the water for example when putting in a dock, or when picking up or dropping off passengers from a boat out in deeper water. They are great fun. My in-laws bought one from a local boat dock store and the kids use it in the pool all the time. They take it to the lake and everyone has fun. They are amazingly buoyant, are easy to paddle around like a boat, light, indestructible, easy for kids to get on and off from, and are tons of fun for hours. Not many simple rectangular blocks of foam give this much fun and last for years. You can put a grommet through it and tow it although caution about going slow and being careful as they are hard to stay on when wet.

They come in white, black and blue, the black gets quite hot in the sun even underwater so blue or white is preferred.

The raw materials must be pricey as they start at around $80-90 and go up from there, the big 12-14' mats can be $800-$1200. Take them to the beach, they are a lot of fun on waves. I know when I was a kid I tried to have fun like that on a piece of styrofoam but soon it was in pieces. I think the technology for the foam came from the gymnastics business..

Anyway, it worked awesome to float out on, add the fluoridone and come back, easy to transport and store. For pond maintenance companies, they could throw this on top of a truck or van or inside and have a 'mobile boat' that is lightweight, would hold up an adult, provides a surface to carry your tools with you etc. Your feet do get a bit wet, and because there is very low resistance with the water, if you heave some water off the front of the mat, it will propel you backwards quite quickly so you do have to be a bit careful If you slip off, the mat doubles as a great flotation device.


The problem:



Size of mat:



improvised PVC pipe 'oar' works great



hopefully in about 30 days we'll have much less weed growth...

Cool! So you've got a bit left over, huh?

Just be happy that your pond isn't bigger. A client has roughly 25 aurface acres that will need treating next year.

Thanks esshup. I put in the amount recommended, will likely retreat in 3 weeks or so. Then see how it works! Will re-treat in spring. I'm not sure the stuff will get evenly distributed up into the shallows though, the plume from aerator slows down pretty good by the time it gets to shore, but I guess in time it will mix?

WE haven't had a good windy day in more than a month but that helps mix the water a bit as well.

Hopefully enough for 7 additional treatments after the first

Personally, I'd grab my gas-engine leaf-blower and make an omni-directional portable airboat out of this contraption.
The paddle-pole option looks like work...

Great idea Kelly